Novelty pencil holding stand



Oct. 7, 1969 w. o. THOMPSON NOVELTY PENCIL HOLDING STAND med Feb. '6, 1967 IIIII'IIIIIIIIIY/III) FIG. 4

; //vv/vr0/? v I W/L BUR 0. THOMPSON C'Afforney j United States Patent 3,471,032 NOVELTY PENCIL HOLDING STAND Wilbur 0. Thompson, 815 S. 2nd St., De Kalb, Ill. 60115 Filed Feb. 6, 1967, Ser. No. 614,141 Int. Cl. A47f 7/00; B43m 17/00 US. Cl. 211-69.1 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE open bottom are both formed either from die-cut pieces of cardboard or are pieces cut with scissors from a piece of cardboard having the outlines of the two parts printed thereon.

This invention relates to a novelty pencil holding stand, which when in use resembles an Indian tepee, the ends of the pencils projecting from the top of the frusto-conical hollow body of the stand corresponding in miniature, to the protruding ends of the tent poles of a real tepee, and, of course, making the pencils easily accessible for removal when they are to be used.

A salient feature of the invention is the forming of the frusto-conical body of the stand as well as the cone-shaped bottom therefor from pieces of cardboard which may be produced at low cost as cutouts or as die-cut pieces designed to be readily assembled by the ultimate user, thus making it possible to supply these pencil holding stands in flat form either as die-cuts or as cutouts so as to enable making the same available in flat form either way for convenient distribution in envelopes.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novelty pencil holding stand of my invention as it appears when in use;

FIG. 2 is a central vertical cross-section; and

FIGS. 3 and 4 are plan views of the two parts, namely, the body part and the bottom part, both laid flat, as they would appear when supplied as die-cut pieces, of as cut from a card.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts throughout these views.

Referring to the drawing, the reference numeral 5 designates the novelty pencil holding stand of my invention, illustrating the same set up for use and showing how the ends of pencils 6 project from the open upper end 7 of the frusto-conical shaped body 8, resembling, in miniature, the tent poles of a real Indian tepee. To further this resemblance, various Indian characters may be provided, as indicated at 9, to decorate the exterior of the body 8, and an entrance may also be represented, as indicated at 10. As seen in FIG. 2, a conical bottom 11 is provided inside the body 8 resting about its periphery on radially inwardly projecting lugs 12 that are defined by bending inwardly rectangular portions from the lower edge of the body 8 at noches 13, these lugs being disposed with their upper edges under the peripheral edge portion of the conical bottom 11. The latter is formed from a circular blank 11a shown in FIG. 4 that has been cut radially to its center, as indicated by the line 14 prior to the edges 15 and 16 being overlapped to form a cone out of this flat circular blank, the blank in its conical form being pushed upwardly into the bottom of the frusto-conical body 8 prior to the folding inwardly of the lugs 12 that serve to support it.

There is no need for other supports inasmuch as the cir- 3,471,032 Patented Oct. 7, 1969 cular blank when formed to its conical shape tends to return to its flat form and it therefore presses outwardly throughout its circumference against the inside of the frusto-conical body 8 to give it a true circular form, and also presses downwardly against the tops of all of the evenly circumferentially spaced lugs 12.

'-'In operation, when a pencil 6 is inserted through the open top 7 of the holder or stand 5, usually, though not necessarily, with the pointed end 17 down, it is obvious that regardless of where the lower end engages the conical-bottom 11 it will be guided out-wardly to the outer edge of said bottom so that the other end projecting from the upper end of the stand will always be properly inclined with respect to the body 8.

If the blanks 8a and 11a are not die-cut, it is an easy matter to cut them from a cardboard, and in either case, thereafter cut the slit 14 to the center of the circular blank 11a and also cut out the lug 12 along the lines 18 and 19, so that each of these lugs can be bent radially inwardly along the line 20 after the bottom 11 has been inserted in the manner described above, whereby to provide support for the bottom and, of course, support for whatever pencils are thereafter inserted with their lower ends resting on the bottom 11 as described above. One end of the blank 8a for the body 8 has a flap 21 defined thereon which, when the radial edge 22 of the blank is in overlapping relationship to the flap 21 along the line 23, enables either gluing the overlapped ends together, or stapling them as indicated at 24 in FIG. 1. It is obvious, therefore, that with this convenient method of assembling the pencil holding stand, the same may be made available atvery low cost to the ultimate user. It is well known that youngsters enjoy cutouts and that it is a good idea to encourage them to make things for themselves and to develop skills in various ways as indicated here with these cutouts, because a youngster generally appreciates things better that he makes for himself and that he will take better care of them. If the child makes a practice of keeping only sharpened pencils in the stand this also serves a useful purpose as a training device, not only from the standpoint of keeping his study desk neat but also teaching the youngster to be systematic about keeping snflicient pencils sharpened for immediate use when needed.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, this is only for the purpose of illustration, and it is to be understood that various modifications in structure will occur to a person skilled in this art.

I claim:

1. A desk or table stand for several pencils and the like elongated articles comprising a hollow generally frusto-conical body providing inwardly inclined side walls converging to a central top opening at the small upper end for insertion of the pencils or the like articles downwardly therein, and a substantially conical bottom closure for said body, the apex of which is above the horizontal plane of the lower end of said body and on the sloping sides of which the lower ends of the elongated articles are supported and tend to gravitate to positions where they are supported close to or in contact with said inclined side walls of the body, so that the upper ends project in angular relationship to one another from the open top of the body for easy access and removal.

2. A structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein the bottom closure is formed from a flat disk of flexible sheet material of a diameter larger than the open lower end of said body, said disk being slit radially to the center and the disk being given conical form and also a small enough diameter for entry in the open lower end of said body by overlapping the portions on opposite sides of the radial slit so as to permit entering the disk apex upwardly into the lower end of said body, there being means to support said disk in conical form inside said body in elevated relation to the lower end thereof.

3. A structure as set forth in claim 1, wherein the bottom closure is formed from a flat disk of flexible sheet material of a diameter larger than the open lower end of said body, said disk being slit radially to the center and the disk being given conical form and also a small enough diameter for entry in the open lower end of said body by overlapping the portions on opposite sides of the radial slit so as to permit entering the disk apex upwardly into the lower end of said body, there being means on the inside of said body providing shoulders in coplanar relation and in circumferentially spaced relation to said disk and elevated relative to the bottom of said body for support of the disk in conical form thereon.

4. A structure as set forth in claim 1, wherein the bottom closure is formed from a flat disk of flexible sheet material of a diameter larger than the open lower end of said body, said disk being slit radially to the center and the disk being given conical form and also a small enough diameter for entry in the open lower end of said body by overlapping the portions on opposite sides of the radial slit so as to permit entering the disk apex upwardly into the lower end of said body, there being lugs projecting substantially horizontally inwardly from the wall of said body in circumferentially spaced relation on which the disk in conical form is supported.

5. A desk or table stand for pencils and the like elongated articles comprising a hollow generally frusto-conical body open at the small upper end for insertion of the pencils or the like articles downwardly therein, and a bottom closure for said body on which the lower ends of the elongated articles are supported so that the upper ends project in angular relationship to one another from the open top of the body for easy access and removal, said body being formed to frusto-conical form from a flat arcuate sheet of flexible material, the ends of the arcuate sheet being overlapped and secured together, the bottom closure being formed from a flat disk of flexible sheet material of a diameter larger than the lower end of said body, said disk being slit radially to the center and the disk being given conical form by overlapping the portions on opposite sides of the radial slit so as to permit entering the disk apex upwardly into the lower end of said body, there being generally rectangular notches cut in the lower edge of the body in circumferentially spaced relation to define lugs of that form bent inwardly from the wall of the body and projecting under the peripheral edge portion of said disk in conical form to support the same.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,198,980 9/1916 Weik 206--46 2,786,595 3/1957 Nelson 31273 X 990,725 4/1911 Gardner 46--11 1,092,156 4/1914 Mathis 211--69.1 XR 1,946,779 2/1934 Conway 248-37.3 2,744,356 5/ 1956 Killinger et a1 4611 XR 3,235,263 2/1966 Smith 4611 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 320,463 12/ 1953 Switzerland.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner W. E. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 3 121-73 

